Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ:BAND) Short Interest Up 13.0% in December

Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ:BAND) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 847,600 shares, an increase of 13.0% from the December 15th total of 749,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 261,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAND has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Bandwidth from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Bandwidth from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Bandwidth in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bandwidth has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Richard Brandon Asbill sold 5,561 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.26, for a total value of $118,226.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 41,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $889,199.50. The trade was a 11.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David A. Morken sold 15,410 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.26, for a total value of $327,616.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 101,821 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,164,714.46. The trade was a 13.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 51,023 shares of company stock valued at $1,057,162. 6.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bandwidth

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Bandwidth by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,043,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,606,000 after buying an additional 62,201 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Bandwidth by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 604,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,199,000 after acquiring an additional 51,542 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Bandwidth by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 50,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $850,000 after acquiring an additional 1,342 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in Bandwidth by 143.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 55,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $929,000 after purchasing an additional 32,598 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. acquired a new stake in Bandwidth in the 2nd quarter valued at $590,000. 68.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bandwidth Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BAND opened at $15.68 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $431.36 million, a P/E ratio of -16.86 and a beta of 1.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $18.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.10. Bandwidth has a fifty-two week low of $11.90 and a fifty-two week high of $25.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.11. Bandwidth had a negative return on equity of 0.89% and a negative net margin of 2.23%. The business had revenue of $193.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.05 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.03 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Bandwidth will post 0.08 EPS for the current year.

About Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a leading enterprise cloud communications company. Companies like Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Uber, and Zoom use Bandwidth’s APIs to easily embed voice, messaging, and emergency services into software and applications. Bandwidth is the first and only CPaaS provider offering a robust selection of communications APIs built around their own IP voice network.